#political platforms and issues

[xiaq]

Watching this debate is like watching a toddler argue with a lawyer except the moderators have to try and keep a straight face and treat the toddler's tantrums with equal gravity and sincerity to the lawyer's comprehensive, empirical, statements.

[reportwire]

Thai PM orders tighter gun control, drugs crackdown after mass killing | CNN

Thai PM orders tighter gun control, drugs crackdown after mass killing | CNN

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Monday ordered law enforcement agencies to tighten gun ownership rules and crack down on drug use following a mass killing by an ex-policeman at a daycare center that left has the nation in shock. A total of 36 people including 24 children were killed in a knife and gun rampage last week by an ex-cop who later killed himself in Uthai Sawan, a town 500…

[myfandomrealitea]

Was your Safe Spaces post discord-(or any closed forum I guess) specific, or do you think the same should go for fandom-themed blogs on tumblr? Like, if I follow someone for Doctor Who content, I'd rather they didn't put real world issues on my dash, but otoh, it's their blog and they get to decide what they post on it (preferably tagged so I can curate). I've observed that people that run themed blogs that become popular often seem to feel an obligation to use their platform for activism (or, in the case of crypto-radfems, deliberately built their platform to recruit), and it stresses tf out of me for the reasons you mentioned, but it's not like the maintags are much safer because there will be spam relating to real-world issues, or antis trying to relate fiction to real world issues.

Realistically; the same outlook can and could be applied to any social setting. Be it online, private, public, face to face, ect.

Your point about obligation in terms of platform scale is something I've also noticed and have been dabbling about raising. Mostly because you see it a lot with celebrities or public content creators who receive a large following. Its often less that they feel obligated and more than they're usually bullied into it.

For example; I follow a trans (FTM) vlogger on Instagram. His entire online presence is based around being trans and helping to educate people and support people in regards to learning about being transgender, transgender health, his personal transitional journey, ect.

He's got a modest following, nothing ridiculous but I think right now he's sitting at around 75,000 followers.

And as of late, there are random people who don't follow him and aren't at all interested in what he has to say flooding his comment section with things like:

Why didn't you mention anything about Gaza?

All these followers and no shout outs for smaller creators?

What are you doing to raise awareness for X?

All these views could've been used to raise awareness for X.

And its fucking ridiculous. People are pressuring a middle class trans man with 75,000 followers to accept responsibility for counter-responding to a literal war when there are actual celebrities and billionaires with both the actual reach and money to make a difference who simply refuse to because they won't personally benefit from it.

I used to run a really popular fandom blog here on Tumblr. For an actual fandom, not just what I do here and now. It started off small, but I eventually grew it to the point where my follow count was creeping toward 10,000. Which for Tumblr and for a fandom-specific blog was not at all insignificant.

And the moment my notes count started going up, the demands started flooding in. People expecting me to reblog their donation links, demanding I share their friend's aid post, asking why I wasn't reblogging awareness posts or donation drives, ect.

Its largely because its easier to harass accessible people over it than it is to harass someone like Kim Kardashian, but its also because again: we have such a skewed understanding of what is actually effective in terms of activism and circulation of information.

Most of it comes down to shaming people and trying to assert that they're a bad person for having the privilege and benefits of a large following but not doing anything for other people or to 'deserve' that following. They're 'a bad person' for having 75,000 people's attention and not using it to force them to be aware of X.

A good example of proper audience targeting and activism is the page We Rate Dogs.

We Rate Dogs will share awareness posts and donation drives.

About dogs.

Because their followers are there for the dogs. Their followers like dogs. They want to enjoy dog content and help dogs.

If they started sharing posts about war and death and rape, the people who are following them to see cute dog videos will simply unfollow them.

They're using their targeted platform properly.

[suterbuyout2024]

honestly feel like you can't fully understand why the nhl functions the way it does unless you have an in-depth understanding of american conservatism specifically. like. the nhl is run by a collection of people who function on conservative nostalgia, purposeful obtuseness, and a direct opposition to progressivism. they're the type of american traditionalists who think that we should go back to the good old days when people respected their elders and didn't think too hard about things like civil rights or what equity actually means. they believe in a homogenous culture of assimilation and obedience, and they rely on the people within that culture to perpetuate it via mutual surveillance. it's what the wealthy white american right has always been, especially since wwii and the cold war after it. and it's what the nhl has always been. it's a culture that is determined to keep itself locked away in the 1980s while the world around it evolves, and as it grows farther removed from the world it exists in, the more reactionary it gets. it's fucking. every 70 year old republican senator who refuses to step down until they keel over dead in congress. that's it. that's all.

[catshinji]

"You may think I'm a single-issue voter. But Palestinian liberation is, in microcosm, the struggle against imperialism, colonialism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, genocide, senseless war, racism, fascism, unregulated rapacious capitalism, and the struggle for international law, universal basic human rights and dignity, peace, justice, self-determination and truth."

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

.

[theamazingannie]

Love the way people will simultaneously hate on celebrities for voicing opinions about politics because they aren’t educated enough on the topic and also condemn celebrities who don’t speak out about politics when they are clearly not the kind of person who is properly educated on the topic

[anglerflsh]

I do hear a lot of talk about anti-intellectualism on the online sphere but I really and truly cannot stress enough that the act of discouraging the general public from critical thought or from reflecting on political matters in an informed way or on discussing nuanced issues with said nuance is not an online-only problem and it has been the death of politics in my country since the 26th of january 1994* *the date Berlusconi announced his entrance into italian politics

[gikairan]

Anyway, my biggest fear now is that....

Labours platform is both uninspiring, and probably wont actually do anything to fix the UKs issues. And the issues we are suffering are going to take more than 4 years to fix.

So when the next GE rolls around? People just vote the Tories back in because "Well Labour didnt help me, so we need to change things up!"

And we're just back to square one......

[vordemtodgefeit]

my constituency is officially a labour hold, green second majority

[ravenkings]

[vaxxildamn]

very happy Matt decided to clarify his stance on the genocide of the Palestinian people rn. Pretty unhappy with the way he worded it, who he centered in his video, and disappointed to see the responses to it on Twitter.

kinda scared to even post about it bc CR fans can get so defensive about their favorite white people that they can often leave little room for criticism or nuance. but man I have thoughts.

[tamamita]

what do you think of muhammed hijab?

He is literally so annoying, and I hate how he tries to be the voice of the pro-Palestinian cause when he's nothing but an Islamist

[zhuhongs]

just found out the lead singer of taiwans biggest death metal band is also an active parliament member since like 2015.... and is still active as a death metal singer. he's a pretty standard taiwanese center left anti communist from what i could gather. which like as a leftist i dont really agree with but i also dont know enough abt taiwanese politics to like make a full judgement. though he seems to be a standard liberal nothing remarkable, radical, or new, not overtly horrible but just bland. but that was something i definitely did Not expect. apparently he's very pro indigenous rights and self determination for indigenous people but being in a centre left mega party like the DPP does not seem like the best way to achieve that. But yea, just thought I'd share

[wild-at-mind]

I think the worst kind of intra-left arguing is 'look how the people who aren't quite like me don't care about x!' and the evidence given is all about posting on social media. (Lack of it/amount of it, subject matter of it etc.)

[theamazingannie]

People getting mad at Taylor Swift for telling people to vote for the person that represents them during a primary election (not the general) because she didn’t address LGBT issues (which is not addressed as strongly during a primary election) or endorse a specific candidate (during an INCUMBENT primary election with a clear winner) is exactly why I’m not gonna be the person who gets mad at celebrities for not speaking out over every issue because y’all will never be happy